Tamaroa Tribe

Tamaroa Indians. (Tamaroa – Illinois: Tamaro´wa, said to mean ‘cut tail,’ or, lit., ‘he has a cut tail,’ probably relating to some totemic animal, such as a bear or the wildcat; cognate with Abnaki tĕmaruwé. – Gerard.) A tribe of the Illinois Confederacy. In 1680 they occupied the country on both sides of the Mississippi about the mouths of the Illinois and Missouri Rivers. They were always friendly to the French, who made their village a stopping place on journeys between Canada and Louisiana. Their enemies were the Chickasaw, who attacked them continually, and the Shawnee. They disappeared as a tribe before the beginning of the 19^th century. Hennepin estimated them about 1680 at 200 families.

Alternate Spellings

• Camaroura – Neill, Hist. Minn., 173, 1858.
• Mahoras – Hennepin, New Discov., 255, 1698.
• Maroa – La Salle (1679) in Margry, Déc., I, 479, 1875.
• Marohans – Hennepin, op. cit., 186.
• Tabaroas – Barcia, Ensayo, 247, 1723.
• Tamarais – Chauvignerie (1736) quoted by Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, III, 555, 1853.
• Tamarcas – La Tour, map, 1782 (misprint).
• Tamaroa – La Salle (1679) in Margry, Déc., I, 479, 1875.
• Tamarohas – Tailhan in Perrot, Mém., 221, note, 1869.
• Tamarois – Chauvignerie (1736)  in N. Y. Doc. Col. Hist., IX, 1057, 1855.
• Tamarojas – Iberville (1700) in Margry, Déc., IV, 404, 1880.
• Tamaronas – Drake, Book of Indians, xi, 1848.
• Tamarones – Domenech, Deserts of North America, I, 444, 1860.
• Tamaronos – Kingsley, Stand. Nat. Hist., pt. 6, 151, 1883.
• Tamaroras – La Tour, map, 1779 (misprint).
• Tamaroua – Iberville (1702) in Margry, Déc., IV, 601, 1880.
• Tamarouha – Gravier (ca. 1700) in Shea, Early Voy., 117, 1861.
• Tamarous – Perkins and Peck, Annals of the West, 680, 1850.
• Tamawas – McKenney and Hall, Indian Tribes, III, 79, 1854.
• Tamoria – Vincennes treaty (1803) in Am. State Papers., Indian Affairs, I, 687, 1832.
• Tamorois – Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, II, 588, 1852.
• Tavaroas – Tonti, Rel. de la Louisiane, 136, 1720.
• Temorais – Harrison (1814) quoted by Drake, Tecumseh, 160, 1852.
• Temorias – Keane in Stanford, Compend., 538, 1878.
• Tmarois – De l’Isle, map (ca. 1705) in Neill, Hist. Minn., 1858.
• Tomaroas – Boudinot, Star in the West, 129, 1816.